In the beginning, your power bills post having a Solar PV system installed can sometimes take a little adjusting in order to understand your savings. We have received many calls over the years from confused clients who feel they are only saving the amount they are feeding back to the grid. However in truth most of the savings are courtesy of the solar power which clients no longer need to buy from Synergy.

Let’s take a look at this in more detail…

There is a common misconception about how much a Solar PV system actually saves you and how this is explained on your power bill.

It is important to realise that the .0713c Feed In Tariff is “Net”. It is not paid for every kWh generated by your Solar PV system. What this means is that the .0713c only paid for the solar energy you send back to the grid, this is the Solar power you are not using (refer to the green section on the graph below).

To put it simply, If you use the solar power as its produced, that’s power you would normally have to pay the full price for .2832 cents /kWh (this is where the big savings are).If you don’t use the Solar power it then goes back to the grid and you are paid .0713 cents/kWh.

A common misunderstanding when reading your Synergy bill is that the home owner often mistakes the total savings their system has made to be the amount that shows as a credit on the bill (in this case $49.16). Shown on example bill below as A.

Let’s take a look at it this way:

This new Solar client (see below) has received their first “post Solar” bill. You will see that there is a credit for $49.16 for 689 units fed back to the grid that the customer was paid for by Synergy. This is shown as A.

You will then see an amount for the power purchased from Synergy: 591 units at $0.25752 per unit of power ($0.2832 inc gst). This is shown as B.

Then there is the daily charge “Supply Charge” 0.92317. This is charged whether you use power or not. This is shown as C.

On your first bill after installing Solar there is also a meter upgrade charge. In this case its $125.67 more for 3 phase homes less if you already have a compatible digital meter. This is shown as D.

Your Synergy bill does not show the total amount of power generated by your Solar PV system, nor does it show how much of that Solar power you have used.

Example power bill

So how do I calculate how much I have actually saved?

The best and easiest way to calculate the amount of power your system has generated is to use Solar.web. This service is limited to Fronius systems with consumption meters connected to your home Wi-Fi.

The other way to calculate your actual savings is to record the production of your inverter over a billing period, then subtract the amount of power fed back to the grid (displayed on you bill). This will give you the amount of free power you have consumed from your Solar and calculate it from there.

Remember: it is important to try to use your power while the sun in shinning. Cooking, heating, cooling, washing, downloading, drying, charging… etc… to make the most of Perth’s sun and your new Solar panels. Please don’t make the mistake of using more power, The idea is to shift your power usage to the sunlight hours and try to conserve power when the sun is not shining Use your power “smarter”. Visit our Energy saving tips page for more information.

If you still have questions regarding your newly reduced power bill, or if you are interested in upgrading to a Smart Meter, please phone 9244 9200 and ask one of our experts for more information.

Graph explaining an example of a daily cost summary for an average Perth household

About Craig Donohue

Established in 2010, Craig Donohue is the founder of Clean NRG Perth. He has always had a passion for sustainability. From an early age Craig has had a desire to reduce his carbon footprint and his electricity bills. The opportunity came up to start a Solar energy business and Craig has never looked back. With 30+ years experience in retail and B2B, he has an excellent understanding of the importance of superior customer service and has an excellent reputation in the industry. Craig has been employed by some of the world’s largest companies including Sanyo and Toshiba. He prides himself on an open door policy and is always available to meet with clients be it face to face or over the phone.